6 January 2025 (MIA)

1392 – Skopje is conquered by the Ottomans.

1449 – Constantine XI is crowned Byzantine Emperor at Mystras.

1579 – The Union of Arras is signed.

1661 – English Restoration: The Fifth Monarchists unsuccessfully attempt to seize control of London, England.

1690 – Joseph, son of Emperor Leopold I, becomes King of the Romans.

1781 – In the Battle of Jersey, the British defeat the last attempt by France to invade Jersey.

1809 – Combined British, Portuguese and colonial Brazilian forces begin the Invasion of Cayenne during the Napoleonic Wars.

1838 – Alfred Vail demonstrates a telegraph system using dots and dashes (this is the forerunner of Morse code).

1839 – The most damaging storm in 300 years sweeps across Ireland, damaging or destroying more than 20% of the houses in Dublin.

1853 – President-elect of the United States Franklin Pierce and his family are involved in a train wreck near Andover, Massachusetts. Pierce’s 11-year-old son Benjamin is killed in the crash.

1900 – Second Boer War: Having already sieged the fortress at Ladysmith, Boer forces attack it, but are driven back by British defenders.

1907 – Maria Montessori opens her first school and daycare center for working class children in Rome, Italy.

1912 – New Mexico is admitted to the Union as the 47th U.S. state.

1912 – German geophysicist Alfred Wegener first presents his theory of continental drift.

1921 – Formation of the Iraqi Army.

1929 – King Alexander of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes suspends his country’s constitution (the January 6th Dictatorship).

1929 – Mother Teresa arrives in Calcutta, India, to begin her work among India’s poorest and sick people.

1930 – The first diesel-engined automobile trip is completed, from Indianapolis, Indiana, to New York, New York.

1931 – Thomas Edison signs his last patent application.

1941 – United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt delivers his Four Freedoms speech in the State of the Union address.

1946 – The Association of Artists of Macedonia is founded with Vangel Kodzoman, Lazar Lichenoski, Nikola Martinovski and Borko Lazeski as one of its founders.

1947 – Pan American Airlines becomes the first commercial airline to offer a round-the-world ticket.

1950 – The United Kingdom recognizes the People’s Republic of China. The Republic of China severs diplomatic relations with the UK in response.

1951 – Korean War: An estimated 200–1,300 South Korean communist sympathizers are slaughtered in what becomes the Ganghwa massacre.

1960 – National Airlines Flight 2511 is destroyed in mid-air by a bomb, while en route from New York City to Miami.

1967 – Vietnam War: United States Marine Corps and ARVN troops launch “Operation Deckhouse Five” in the Mekong River delta.

1978 – The Crown of St. Stephen (also known as the Holy Crown of Hungary) is returned to Hungary from the United States, where it was held after World War II.

1989 – Satwant Singh and alleged conspirator Kehar Singh were sentenced to death for conspiracy in the plot of the Prime Minister of India Indira Gandhi assassination, carried out by Satwant Singh and Beant Singh.

1992 – President of Georgia Zviad Gamsakhurdia flees the country as a result of the military coup.

1993 – Indian Border Security Force units kill 55 Kashmiri civilians in Sopore, Jammu and Kashmir, in revenge after militants ambushed a BSF patrol.

1994 – Nancy Kerrigan is clubbed on the knee at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Detroit.

1995 – A chemical fire in an apartment complex in Manila, Philippines, leads to the discovery of plans for Project Bojinka, a mass-terrorist attack.

2005 – American Civil Rights Movement: Edgar Ray Killen is arrested as a suspect in the 1964 murders of three civil rights workers.

2005 – A train collision in Graniteville, South Carolina, releases about 60 tons of chlorine gas.

2012 – Twenty-six people are killed and 63 wounded when a suicide bomber blows himself up at a police station in Damascus.

2021 – Supporters of US President Donald Trump storm the Capitol in Washington during congressional certification of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris's win, resulting in five deaths and prompting evacuation of lawmakers and Vice President Mike Pence.

2022 – Tennis world No. 1 Novak Đoković's visa into Australia cancelled after uproar over his COVID-19 vaccination exemption.

2023 – New study discovers ancient Roman concrete is stronger than modern concrete because of the use of a hot mixing technique, with quicklime that self-healed any cracks over time.